MISSION SOSITA
Taking Music to Zero Gravity
St. Bruno Parish School's very own Mrs. Lisa Werner is one of 10 teachers across the United States to be chosen to be a part of this program, and only one of four to fly. More than that - she is THE ONLY band teacher! (Most are science and math teachers). Her combination of science and music bring a unique perspective not only to our students, but to the entire National Space Society program! Mrs. Werner's flight took place May 12, 2022, flying out of Fort Lauderdale, FL.
With the help of the St. Bruno Parish School students, our flight mission has been named SOSITA: Sounds Of Space In The Air.
ARTEMIS VIDEO
MISSION PATCH VIDEO
Mrs. Werner's Blog
Solar Eclipse Day
All K5-8th grade students and visiting adults got to learn about the eclipse, sing an eclipse song, create eclipse art, explore the eclipse through colanders, crackers, and glasses, and submit citizen science reports. We also participated in the Eclipse Soundscapes Project.
Mission Name
The students in the middle school ELA classes had the opportunity to submit naming ideas for this mission. They got to hear about Mrs. Werner's experiments, and then wrote paragraphs to explain their mission name ideas. The winning name, as voted on by the middle school teachers, was SOSITA, which stands for "Sounds Of Space In The Air." Congratulations to Gabby F. who came up with the winning mission name!
Mission Patches
All students in grades 3K-8 designed their mission patch during art class. Then staff narrowed it down to the Top 10 and then the 3 finalists. At that point students and staff had the opportunity to vote for their favorite. The winning patch was designed by Hailey S., 8th grade. Congratulations to all! Mrs. Werner will be taking ALL of the patch designs with her for the Zero Gravity flight, so everyone will have a chance for their design to be included! For more pictures, visit our photo gallery here.
8th Grade Design Help
The 8th grade science class was asked to help Mrs. Werner by designing a harness for some of the experiments she is doing in 0 g. Ms. Mulligan guided the class through the criteria and constraints for the design project and provided the students with materials to use. The students brainstormed, demonstrated, and presented their work to Mrs. Werner.
Student Experiments
Mrs. Werner will be flying with 4 different experiments, that were designed with help from the beginning and middle school band students. The 8th grade students learned the experiments and then demonstrated them to all of the classes in St. Bruno! They were wonderful leaders and teachers! For more pictures, visit our photo gallery here.
What Are The Experiments?
Mrs. Werner will be flying with 4 different experiments. Here's a quick overview of all of them:
The first experiment is a test of gravity's effects on reaction time, as tested by playing a drum at certain tempos to see if Mrs. Werner can keep a steady beat without gravity helping to bring the drumstick down. Since reaction time is a very important aspect of astronaut training, the results will be very interesting.
The second experiment is going to show how vibrations work in 0 g. Mrs. Werner will play her trombone into a handmade drum filled with cupcake sprinkles to see how the sprinkles 'dance,' comparing our results to the ground testing.
The third experiment will show what sound waves look like in 0 g. Mrs. Werner will play her trombone at a plastic tube filled with styrofoam beads, hoping to get a clear 3-dimensional picture of a sound wave. We have calculated the resonant frequency of the tube itself to get the best results.
The fourth experiment will find out what happens to die during a 0 g flight. Mrs. Werner and the band students will compose a piece of music based off of how the die rolls as it comes in and out of zero gravity. Mrs. Werner will also have an accelerometer measuring the entire flight for future compositions with the band students.
Spring Concert
The culmination of this amazing journey will be the St. Bruno Parish School Spring Concert on Wednesday, May 18. Students will demonstrate the experiments for parents and parishioners, show off the work they've done on this mission, and perform music related to our theme "Reach for the Stars!"
More about Lisa Werner
I loved learning to become a music teacher, and knew immediately I found where I needed to be. I went on to get my masters degree in Conducting, as I wanted to dig into even more ways to help my students MAKE MUSIC, rather than just playing notes on the page. Music is so much deeper than the actual notation on the piece of music - I wanted to be able to guide musicians to express themselves through the music.